How old were you when you first started going into gunstores by yourself?

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Same as the first time I went to the barber alone.

Something like 8-9 years old. Our barber had a gunsmithing and retail shop in the back and you went through the barber portion to get to the good stuff.

As soon as we figured he'd let us back there on our own, we also coincidentally became more interested in personal grooming.

Hell of a guy he was.
 
A true gun only store, 17 when I got my first motorcycle.
A place that sells guns and supplies like the hardware store/lumber yard? 12 when I started shoot 22lr's and air rifles.
 
A dedicated gun shop eh? Wow. Good question. Musta been in my mid-to-late teens. Was in many places before that that sold guns but closer to home they were usually an area or dept. of the store I guess. There was one area, a bit of a drive near the region's busiest-by-far outdoor ranges, that had two humungous GUN STORES! Walls of thousands of guns!

One old and "lived in" with squeeky bare wood floors, the guns packed so closely together in the dim light and with so few people to help, you couldn't tell what you were looking at if you didn't already know it very well.

A second, renovated, with bright lights, openly displayed arms in close view with lotsa staff to help.

First the old place was bought and moved to the busy main street around the corner. As predicted, a few years after the range was closed by Left Wing politicians and this popular store did nothing to support the range, they had to move again to a tiny shop on a backstreet and no-one knows they are there really. They went from dozens of good employees to a few family members (the slimy manager married the very greasy owner's daugter) even while they are all under investigation as being the number one supplier of illegally used guns in the region. They were helped by the more popular store closing...

The other we made pilgrimages to, my friends and I. They ultimately closed as the rent became exhorbitant and the owner of this and I heard seven other gunshops was getting divorced and just wanted out.

Now the biggest gunshops around have maybe hundreds of guns, but no more thousands...

...but I'm not young either.
 
Teenager, don't remember exactly, but we could go check out guns at the Otasco hardware store or Sears, etc.

I remember oohing and aghing over a Model 17, knowing I couldn't afford it, and dad would never buy it for me. Man that thing was beautiful. :)
 
52 years old.
Had only been one previous time to Any gun store, age 34, but was accompanied by a coworker.
No buddies, coworkers, or anybody in my family (always suburbs, city life) until the bug hit me in '07, had ever really discussed guns.
 
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My first time in one I was a wee lad, maybe about 12-13. My father never owned firearms, but his friends did. He knew I liked them, so he borrowed one of his friends' .22 rifles. He took me to Kmart to get some ammo, green box stuff. Ammo was lying out on shelves. We went to the range, I had fun.

Been a while since Kmart sold guns and ammo, I do believe!
 
I was 18 when I started going by myself. That's when I could start buying for myself.
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Same here. Shortly after turning 18, I went by myself and bought a Lee Enfield .303 and 100 rounds of milsurp ammo. Me and a buddy took it the next day to a quarry and shot it all up. The next day I noticed that my shoulder was black and blue.
 
I guess it depends on how you define "gun stores." I was 21 or so before I ever saw a real "gun store." I was pretty well grown before I knew for sure anybody but Sears-Roebuck even sold guns.

My mother used to drop me off in the sporting goods section at Sears and tell me she'd be back in a little bit.

Now that I think about it, there was a place in Highland Springs..."Ed's Sporting Goods." I believe he sold everything from guns to model cars. I used to buy some fishing tackle in there when I was just a kid. I'm not sure if I was alone or not. Probably was...my mother/grandfather/somebody probably dropped us off in the middle of downtown Highland Springs...It was a one flashing light town then. Sort of like a slow version of Mayberry. Man, we were big shots. That would have been early 60's or so. I was about 10-12 years old.
 
I don't recall a single "gun store" in my area as a kid. There were hardware stores, Sears, JC Penney, and Kmart, but no gunshops like we have today. All sold guns, but many other things as well. My first Colts were mostly purchased at a Belks (retail store like Macy's or JC Penney). My first shotgun was purchased in a TG&Y. Sears used to have a huge assortment of long guns for sale. Don't recall seeing handguns. The 1968 Gun Control Act changed the way in which guns were sold within a few years.
 
Around 16, when I got my driver's license. Lived in MA the time, north of Boston. Had a few stores in the area. One big one and a couple smaller ones.

Bought my first gun (Ruger M77 in .308) at 17 from a shop on Rt. 1 in Danvers, IIRC.

My great uncle owned a small general store in the area, but sold it when I was 6 - 7 years old.

Also got my FOID card when I was 16, and my MA Permit To Carry when I was 18 (my grandparents were friends with the Chief of Police ).
 
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Around 7 er so.
Once the folks started poundin the beers at Lou's bar in Mt. Oliver,after i filled up on free Skipper pops, free peanuts and .10 Slim Jims, i pretty much just wandered around town and there was a Sears with guns. I remember goin down
stairs in the store to the hardware and sporting goods dept and starin at all the guns.
Then at about 10, i got my 1st bike and would ride the 2 er so miles from Overbrook to Brookline to the gun store. I recall bein a bit more interested in the archery stuff tho coz i couldn't buy anything gun related.
First gun i bot was a Crossman 760 Pump Master at Honus Wagners in downtown Pgh with my paper route earnings. I think it was like $12. Mmmmmaybe $17.
 
Pretty darn young. Walked into a Gemco store(now defunct) back in '72 and walked up to the gun counter to look at a deer rifle. They had a 700ADL .308 on sale for 110$. I took my accumulated allowance and lawn mowing money out of my pocket and purchased my first rifle. No background check, no parent signature, no 10 day wait, no hassle. I was 16. Still have that rifle although it has been upgraded a bit over the years. It is still my primary deer rifle.
 
To be quite honest I never really was Interested in guns until I was 19 when one day at work I met my mentor I had no idea at the time well I asked him one day I said hey what do you like to do for fun he said who me I said yeah you he said oh well I like to hunt and shoot and reload I said yeah I like to shoot to occasionally my step dad taught me how to shoot but I really can't afford it being in college he laughed as he said with a mischievous gleam in his eye what if I told you I could get you to shoot more for less and be more accurate :evil: that is when he took me under his wing and showed me how awesome handloading that is what I prefer to call it sounds more accurate to me is and I have never looked back since :D
 
I was probably 16 or 17 when I first started going to gun stores and the department stores (Sears, Penneys, and Woolworths), by myself. I had been subscribing to Guns and Ammo for a number of years before that (I even remember taking my gun magazines to school to read in homeroom and study hall...imagine that!), and was ordering gun related things through the mail from ads in the back of the magazines.
 
Way pre-internet for me in high school.. thank goodness my HS and libraries had American Rifleman, Guns and Ammo and Field and Stream. The library had tons of reloading and hunting/adventure books etc.
 
Certaindeaf

Our town library and high school library had lots of great gun books, including Jane's Weapons, Boothroyd's Guide to Gun Collecting and The Handgun, and even Hatcher's Notebook.
 
In my neck of the woods when I was a kid there were no dedicated gun stores, there were stores that sold guns (hardware stores, whites auto, western auto and some small town service stations). The first shore nuff gun store that I remember was in the belaire mall in Mobile Ala, right by the front door called gun world (early 70's). Lots of stores had guns (sears, montgomery ward, tg&y, Jc penny or they would order them for you) or you could order them thru the mail (early 60's) from adds in magazines and have them shipped to your door without a ffl. Most of what was available was shotguns in the south, we hunted small game, deer, etc. with them. Now just about every one had a 22 rifle and a shotgun, not many centerfire rifles around every nce in a while you'd see a 30/30 or a 243 or a surplus 30-06. Deer hunting was in the swamps mostly and it was done with shotguns with buck shot over dogs and buck only. I was in college when I bought my first centerfire rifle, a 303 enfield that I got for $30 dollars, shot my first buck with that old rifle a cow horned spike. sold it a few years ago for 10 times what I paid for it, the guy wanted it more that I did. I bought my first pistol, a Ruger standard 22 with a holster, spare mag and the rest of the first box of ammo that was bought with the gun second hand at 8 years old for the huge sum of 30 bucks, my son has it now. Things shure have changed!
 
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